Research Methodologies in Built Environment

Constructive learning : E-tivity Assignment-IV

VALIDATING A DIRECTION ADOPTED IN A BASIC DESIGN STUDIO BASED ON THE PRINCIPLES
OF CONSTRUCTIVISM

Internal Validity

Internal validity is how successful the purpose (to find if constructive learning in the field of
architectural education is valid) between the given tasks and their outcomes.

By subjecting the novices in the basic design studio to informal activities and design tasks,
documenting their processes, it was found that 45% of the students scored more than 72% of
marks. This result enforces that constructivist pedagogy with an objective to foster thinking
skills, process oriented outcomes in architectural education enhances creativity, critical thinking
and pragmatic thoughts.

The evaluation was carried out by two intra raters and four inter raters which were highly
correlated. This reliability further strengthens the internal validity.

External Validity

The exploratory phase in the basic design studio has given positive results. But it does not mean
it is 100% valid when subjected to tests in other schools of architecture, time periods, people,
settings etc. So, in order to generalize the findings, external validity is carried out.

The faculty members who volunteered at the faculty development programme were given an
experiential learning task based on cubism paintings in which the participants are expected to
transform the 4th D interpreted from the paintings 3 dimensionally. Findings and observations
were based on pre-test and post-test (questionnaires). The responses to pre-tests and post-
tests were tabulated under 6 heads.

It was concluded that most of the faculty members who were skeptical about this constructivist
pedagogy strongly agreed that this process invoked thought process, enhanced skills, creativity
and outcomes after being subjected to this process oriented learning task. Thus, this research is
also externally validated by applying the same process driven experiential learning to faculties
in place of students of architecture.

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